


Speechless

by BariTengineer



Category: Eureka (TV)
Genre: M/M, Massage, Muteness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-16 05:35:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29571153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BariTengineer/pseuds/BariTengineer
Summary: Nathan Stark is a man who knows how to use his words like weapons. But for a day, he's disarmed.
Relationships: Jack Carter/Nathan Stark
Comments: 7
Kudos: 66





	Speechless

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd if you find errors let me know and I'll try to correct them.

Nathan Stark generally thought of himself as a very good communicator. He may choose to communicate things in untactful ways, but that was a choice, not ineptitude. What he never found was the painful loss of words he was feeling now. He was in the middle of explaining some important breakthrough in Section 4 to a DoD bigwig, Walker or Warnock or something, when he stopped being able to make sentences. He trailed off in the middle of his explanation and Warnock glared at him. "Dr. Stark, you were saying? I need the rest of that report for my superiors."

Nathan took a deep breath and concentrated for a second "Something...important...report...later." and cut off the call before the other man could respond. His brain was struggling to put concepts into words. That just wasn't something that happened to him. A rogue experiment must be causing this. "FARGO!" he yelled.

Nathan's assistant appeared at the door "Yes Dr. Stark, what do you need?"

Fargo flinched when Nathan's only response was a guttural yell. That was neither what he wanted to say or expected in any way. "Uh, Dr. Stark, are you alright?"

Another yell came from Nathan before he clamped a hand over his mouth. Where the hell was that coming from? He glared at Fargo and then held up his left hand and pointed to where a ring would go. Fargo paused for a second before comprehension dawned on him. "Oh of course, I'll go get Dr. Blake, right away!" he said as he scampered away.

Nathan picked up his touchpad and picked a report at random and started reading. His comprehension still seemed fine, all the words in the report were familiar and made sense in context but while he could understand what it said his brain wouldn't comment on it. And he never did that, he always had something to nitpick over, even if it was trivial and pedantic. Five minutes later Allison was in the room talking at him. "It's not unusual for you to yell at Fargo but he wasn't able to explain the charades. Are you ok Nathan?"

He looked directly into her eyes and resisting the urge to try and say the words and accidentally yell at her he clenched his jaw and gave a short shake of his head. Allison turned into Dr. Blake, the genius medical doctor that he used to love immediately. "Infirmary, now, let's get you checked out and figure out what's going on."

\-----

After an hour of poking and prodding and testing he was allowed to sit down on one of the infirmary beds with his touchpad while he waited for results. He had no trouble understanding the people around him, but any time he tried to say anything back to them all he could do was shout. Well, that wasn't really the problem, he shouted a lot, many of the scientists at GD needed to be shouted at to get whatever message he was trying to give them, but this time he was just yelling unintelligible garbage. What scared him and the medical team the most is that this didn't seem to be an issue with his vocal chords. He couldn't write or type anything out either, like all the words and grammar and understanding of how to get words back out were just gone. He looked up from his touchpad when Dr. Blake came into the room with a suspiciously neutral look on her face. He opened his mouth to ask what they knew and yelled at her again before clamping his mouth down and almost biting his own tongue off. The muscles in his jaw were twitching at how hard he had closed his mouth but he decided it was probably safer this way, at least for now.

Dr. Blake paused for a moment next to his bed and then sat down in an available chair. She handed him his medical file and started explaining. "We're not sure why yet but it seems like something is wrong with the language processing center of your brain. You are capable of hearing and understanding what people are saying around you but when you try to say anything back to us it's garbled. Generally when that part of the brain is damaged it breaks both directions so this is strange, likely Eureka strange."

She put a hand on Nathan's forearm in a comforting gesture and continued on. "We'll fix this Nathan, we'll figure out what's causing it and how to get you back to normal. Since this is affecting your brain I don't want you doing anything strenuous while we work on it. I've already called Henry to pick you up and take you home. Get what rest you can and know that like always the best minds in Eureka are working on a solution."

Nathan didn't comment that at least one of their best minds was out of commission if he couldn't help. Not that he didn't want to, just that he couldn't, and a random yell at her would do nothing to help. He gave a curt nod and got up from the bed. By the time he had his jacket and tie back on Allison was gone. He walked to the entrance of GD and waited the handful of minutes it took for Henry to arrive. Once he had settled into the passenger seat Henry began the drive back into town. Nathan let the town blur by while he tried to think of some way he'd be able to fix this, or at least some way to communicate while someone else fixed it. When the car stopped he looked around, they weren't at his house, they were at Café Diem. Nathan gave Henry a glare that he knew wouldn't work on his old mentor and then got out of the car. Henry looked him in the eyes and chuckled "Don't even try to argue, I know you haven't eaten today and if I dropped you off at home without getting food in you you wouldn't eat until either you or someone else solved this."

Nathan chaffed at the statement but he couldn't deny it was true. He followed Henry in and they took a booth in the back. In no time at all Zoe has appeared. "Henry, Dr. Stark, what would you like?"

There was no doubt in Stark's mind that if Carter found out about this whole mess he'd make a whole thing out of it. And in this state he couldn't even properly trade barbs with the sheriff in order to bring him back down to size. Nathan rubbed his forehead at the feeling of a headache that scenario would give him. By the time he looked up back at Henry Zoe had left and his friend was looking at him with concern. Nathan waved him off unsure how to make clear that this headache was frustration induced and unlikely to be related to his current language issues.

Zoe reappeared at their table with their food and drinks. "Oh Dr. Stark, my dad was looking for you, something about new safety protocols regarding Taggart's experiments. He's still pretty pissed after he got bit by the dingo-ferret last week."

Nathan gave her a short nod and Zoe gave her a quizzical look before she turned it on Henry. "Dr. Deacon, is something wrong with Dr. Stark, the lack of snark has me concerned".

Damn Carters and their perceptiveness, he glared at her and she glared back at him giving just as good at she got. He sighed before nodding to her and gesturing to Henry to let him explain. He tuned out their conversation while he ate his meal. Vincent's cooking was as always delicious and he let himself get lost in his meal rather than get frustrated at having his momentary weakness explained to the daughter of the man he least wanted to know about this.

"Oh! I have an idea, I'll be right back." Zoe exclaimed as she ran out of Café Diem with a quick aside to Vincent to let her know she was taking her break early.

Nathan looked up at Henry who just shrugged his shoulders. "I have no idea what her plan is. But it'd be fun to find out."

The twinkle in Henry's eyes was genuine excitement at seeing what Zoe would do, though Nathan couldn't quite share the excitement as it felt it was at his expense. Henry finally tucked into his meal and they ate silently while waiting for Zoe's return.

By the time they had finished eating and gotten a Vinspresso each Zoe was back with a book in her hand. "Here, take this Dr. Stark, it won't be enough to get you back to doing science but at least it should be less frustrating than not being able to say anything."

Nathan took the proffered book and looked at the title. 'Communicating with Special Needs Individuals: Teacher's Edition'. Nathan was furious. Special needs?! What was he some brain damaged child? And then he felt a pang of pain at his own thoughts. Kevin had special needs, even if it was because of The Artifact, and he loved his son, even through all the issues they had. Zoe gave him a pointed look and sighed "Just open it Dr. Stark."

He did as instructed and found the book was page after page of images with simple words or sentences by them. A moment of confusion as to how this helps and then the same epiphany that Zoe had, he could still understand language, so he could use this to help others understand him. He flipped through the book until he found basic conversation information and pointed at 'Thank you' while showing it to Zoe. She beamed at him said "you're welcome" and strode right back to work.

\-------

Soon Nathan was at home sitting on his couch, he felt he had nothing he could do to help and he couldn't even work on paperwork or something else to keep his mind busy. Allison was right, he should probably just rest and wait for them to figure this out. He got up and was going to go upstairs to lay in bed when there was a pounding on his door. Nathan felt a bit exasperated, he was normally at work at this time on a Saturday and there was no reason for anyone to be looking for him here. Allison, Fargo, or Henry would just call him to update him on the situation which left only a few likely possibilities. "Stark! I know you're in there and you can't keep avoiding me about these safety protocols!"

That confirmed his worst suspicion, Carter was the one person he most didn't want to deal with right now. He contemplated just letting the sheriff wear himself down beating on the door but realized that when he did have to deal with Carter after that then he'd be much worse. He sighed and opened the door giving Jack Carter his best "go away" glare he could before the sheriff brushed right past him into his home.

"I'm so tired of being bitten and peed on and dealing with Taggart's monstrosities, I've got the security protocols written up right here, all you need to do is look them over and sign them Stark. It's really not that hard to do so will you please just sign these so I can get back to the rest of my job?" Carter fumed while flapping his arm holding the paperwork around.

Stark grabbed the paperwork out of Carter's hand and started reading. These protocols were extreme, even for Carter. He must be extremely aggravated with Taggart if this was how far he wanted to tamp down on the bio-experiments. He couldn't sign off on these as is but at the moment he was unable to tell the sheriff that and he couldn't just sign them to get him to leave either. Nathan had a brief moment of panic when he realized he probably couldn't sign his name even if he wanted to.

Carter's face swapped from one of anger to one of mild concern. "Stark, you just visibly paled, mind explaining what's so ghastly about making sure Taggart can't accidentally kill anyone with his pets?"

Stark couldn't explain anything at the moment and for a second decided to embrace his inability to speak and just yelled incoherently at Carter. It was Carter's turn to pale a bit and that did give Nathan some satisfaction. But then the worry in Carter's face kicked it up a notch. "Stark, you don't seem well, should I call Allison and get her to look you over?"

Well the cat was out of the bag so Nathan went over to his coffee table and picked up the book Carter's daughter had given him. He flipped through a few pages and held the book up so Carter could see that he was pointing at a picture of a family specifically pointing at the girl child.

Carter's only response was a very confused "Huh?"

Nathan flipped a few pages to a picture of a telephone and then flipped back to the family picture.

"Call, child? You want me to call Kevin? Why?"

Nathan put his hand over his face and then pointed at Carter then at the family. It was a long few seconds before comprehension dawned on him.

"Oh, you want me to call Zoe!"  
Nathan nodded his head. Zoe had already been read in on the situation and could explain it to her father. He tried to direct Carter out of his home while he started to make his phone call but Jack was having none of it. "I still need those signed, soon." he said pointing at the security protocols.

Nathan shook his head, he couldn't sign them as they were but he was not able to explain that very well right now. He slumped onto his couch and let Zoe fill in Carter on what was going on. It wasn't two minutes later he heard Carter cackling and then thanking Zoe for the update. Of course, now his humiliation was complete, Carter knew what was going on and he had no way to defend himself to it. Vincent was likely to know through Zoe which meant by this time tomorrow even if he was fixed the whole town would know.

Carter made one more phone call to Jo to make sure that someone was looking into if there was anything nefarious behind this since it seemed to only be affecting Dr. Stark and once he was assured that she had it handled he ended the call and let her get to it. He looked over at Stark and felt a pang of sadness. The interactions between him and Stark had always been tense and filled with insults, but this new shift where Nathan couldn't talk at all was certainly not an improvement.

The sherrif sat down on the couch next to the scientist and paused for a moment even though he could feel the other man's glare at him. "I'm sorry, I know that this sucks hard for you, but Jo, and Allison, and Henry, and even Fargo are trying to fix it. I'm sure we'll have you back to your snarky self assured obnoxious self in no time."

Carter looked over at Stark and gave him a small smile. "It's not as fun when I'm the only one able to tease you and you can't do it back."

Nathan was so over hearing this, he knew it was embarrassing and hard for him, he knew people were working to fix it, but still, hearing it from Jack felt different. And he had called it teasing, not fighting or arguing. That was interesting. Nathan picked up his picture book and flipped a few pages. First to 'Thank you' and then to a picture labeled 'leave'. Carter put his hands up in a defensive posture, "I got it. I got it. I'm leaving. If you need anything let me know."

Carter got up from the couch and put a hand on Nathan's shoulder for just a second before he was out the door and driving to do the rest of his sheriff duties for the day. Nathan felt oddly comforted by the small gesture form Jack and breathed a heavy sigh. He had never been great at introspection but he supposed he had lots of time today. He hauled himself up to bed intending to just lay down and think but before he knew it he was asleep.

\-----------------

Nathan Stark was not one to be ignored. He was in his office at GD and the room was full of the people who were supposed to be helping him. But all they were doing was laughing and chatting with each other. Allison and Jo both talking about how nice it was that Nathan couldn't scare any scientists into a nervous breakdown or tears if he couldn't yell at them. Fargo chimed in with how nice it was to not be yelled for every few hours by a man who seemed to despise him even if he acknowledged his work on occasion and Henry's words were the worst. "I'm just glad my worst best student can't use his mind and mouth to pervert science any more. "

The whole room burst out laughing at that and Nathan couldn't stand it. He walked right up to Henry intending to shove him and his hands went right through Henry's body. He tried to yell at him, hoping at least the garbled mess he would shout would get some kind of reaction but he made no sound at all. He tried again and nothing came out. He took a few steps backward and fell over and through the floor before finding himself in the bunker listening to S.A.R.A.H, Zoe, and Carter.

This was not a scene that Nathan had any desire to see playing out but he wasn't sure he knew how to stop it. "A silent Stark, it's like a dream come true" Carter said to no one in particular.

Zoe lightly punched him in the arm. "That's not very nice, you should have seen how frustrated he was before I got him that book. Though I do have to admit, I appreciate not hearing him make fun of you at every opportunity."

Nathan rubbed his own arm, he knew he was dreaming at this point but he was pretty sure that this was still an accurate representation of how people felt about his new 'condition'. He turned away from the scene and pinched himself as hard as he could, which of course did nothing, and even though he knew he was dreaming he didn't have the ability to change anything, though he was certainly trying.

"Accidents at Global Dynamic are down 22% since Dr. Stark has lost his voice" S.A.R.A.H. chimed in happily, "and Dr. Fargo's productivity has increased immensely".

Zoe laughed at this "Appreciating all that extra time he's spending working on you?"

S.A.R.A.H. hummed back happily, which was odd for a smart house, though this was a dream smart house Nathan reminded himself. None of this was real, just his brain overacting and him being too exhausted to properly fight it.

At that moment he felt something snap in him and at the same time he woke up. It was late afternoon by the light coming in from the window and he was drenched in sweat. He hadn't even bothered to take off his shirt or pants before laying down and now they'd have to be dry cleaned. He groaned, which was the most understandable noise he had made since this whole thing started and decided to at least make what he could of the rest of the day. He stripped off his soaked clothes and hopped in the shower. The warm water did little to calm his mind down but it certainly helped his body feel better. He dried and dressed and then realized he still had no idea what he could or should be doing at the moment. He looked at his phone, no missed calls or messages, so no updates on his condition yet. 'If they're working on it at all' the darkest part of his brain told him. Nathan shook his head and did his best to push that thought away. Even if everything in his dream about how Allison, Henry, and Fargo felt about the situation was true, they still wouldn't let it get in the way of actually fixing it. He was sure of that. He set his phone down and still had no idea what to do with himself and before he knew it he was almost at the bunker.

\----------------------

Jack had spent the day doing paperwork while Jo dealt with calls and finding out what was behind Stark's condition. When he got home to find Stark's car parked outside the bunker he was immediately concerned. What on Earth could have driven Stark to come here of all places. When he walked down the stairs he found Nathan sitting at the bottom of the stairwell outside the door to the house with his head in his hands. "S.A.R.A.H. do you know what Dr. Stark is doing here and why you left him outside?"

"I am sorry Sheriff, but I asked Dr. Stark several times why he was here but he would not answer me and I felt I should not invite him inside without either an explanation or your permission."

"Open the door S.A.R.A.H. I'll explain".

And with that the door whooshed open and Jack was standing in front of Nathan offering a hand. "Come on in and we'll talk".

Carter cringed a bit at his own words but let it go as Nathan grabbed his hand and pulled himself standing. He wobbled a bit and Jack caught him by the elbow before he fell over again. Jack steered Stark over to a seat at the island.

"So Scientist, what's up?"

Nathan lethargically flipped through his book and pointed out three symbols 'No', 'Alone', 'Think'. Jack watched him as he did so and felt a pang of pity for the man. He could understand how not being able to talk to someone would give you plenty of time with your own thoughts, especially the darker ones. It had been him who had to sit alone with nothing but his thoughts back in his US Marshall days but to someone like Stark who thrived off berating people and verbally sparring with...well him mostly, it was probably far worse.

"Want something to drink? One for no, two for beer, three for scotch."

Three taps later S.A.R.A.H. had poured them both substantial glasses of scotch and they sipped quietly while Jack filled in S.A.R.A.H.

"Oh! Dr. Stark, I am so very sorry for leaving you out there. Since there were no anomalies on your bio-scan I had no idea there was an issue. Please accept my apologies."  
Nathan waved her off, she was protecting her family, exactly what she was designed to do. No harm, no foul as Jack would say.

After they finished their first round S.A.R.A.H. poured them another and Jack dragged Nathan over to the couch. "Well if you don't want to be alone with your thoughts for now you might as well join me for sports or a movie or something. Got a preference?"  
Nathan flipped through his book and pointed at 'movie' knowing that if it were a sports game he'd be bored to tears.

Jack put in Casablanca and when he returned to the couch he handed Nathan a plate. "I doubt you've eaten since I've seen you scientist, can't let that big brain of yours starve."

It was a steak with mushrooms in a red wine sauce, simple but delicious. They ate and drank in reasonable silence while watching the movie, he had seen it several times before and he always enjoyed "As Time Goes By". After their meal and a movie Jack cleared his throat and looked over at Nathan. "Zoe is staying at Pilar's tonight, if you'd like you're welcome to stay so you don't have to be alone tonight."

Nathan stared back at the sheriff and gave a slow nod. He wasn't sure why Jack was taking such good care of him, but he expected it was just 'sheriff's duty' or something else banal. Though he realized that even if that was the case, he deeply appreciated it. He was worried that if he was alone again right now he'd fall right back into those nightmares.

He closed his eyes and laid back on the couch letting as much tension as he could out of his body. Then he felt his legs being lifted up as he was turned sideways. He opened his eyes to find his feet in Jack's lap as the sheriff pulled his shoes and socks off. "No being alone with thoughts. Let me distract you for a bit. My ex did always appreciate a good foot rub after she had a long impossible feeling day."

And with that Carter's strong calloused hands started digging into the soles of his feet and Nathan let out a moan that he never intended and was sure would come across the wrong way.

Jack chuckled "You're extremely tense, when was the last time you had a foot massage, or any kind of massage for that matter?"

Nathan tried to grab his book to answer but it was out of reach and he'd have to take his feet back if he wanted to explain and given the things Jack's hands were doing to his feet, he had no intention of doing that. It felt far too good.

Jack chuckled again "I wasn't expecting a real answer anyway. Glad you're enjoying this though, it's been a while since I've had the chance to help someone relieve their tension this way, and I enjoy it. Just sit back scientist. I've got this."

Nathan wasn't one to take orders, especially not from Jack. He mused to himself wondering when had he stopped calling him Carter and swapped to Jack? Jack dug deep into the arch of his foot and all coherent thought went out of his head. He tried to keep his mouth shut so he wouldn't give away how much he was enjoying this but he had a feeling it wasn't working.

Jack smirked at him. "You need more than this Stark. Come on."  
Jack put his feet back on the ground and stood up. That was not what Nathan wanted but he couldn't say so right now and he's not sure how he would even if he could. How could he tell the person he butted heads with most that he didn't want to stop touching him?

Jack was standing at his side and pulling him up by his elbow. "Come on, we can get you more relaxed if we do this in a better spot."

It felt odd to Nathan to be barefoot in Jack's home but he followed the sheriff into his bedroom. "Bed, out of the suit, down to your boxers and lie face down."  
Nathan really wasn't used to orders from Jack but if this led to anything nearly as good as the foot rub then he didn't care if he was ordered to gargle glass right now. He did as Jack commanded and when he looked up he couldn't find the sheriff anywhere. He came back into the room a moment later, changed out of his uniform into nothing more than some black shorts that were a bit too short and holding a bottle. "S.A.R.A.H. Privacy mode"

The lights dimmed and Nathan put his face back down in the pillow and decided to just trust Jack, at this point he felt he didn't have much to lose. In a minute he felt oily hands at the top of his back putting pressure on all his most tense spot and they slowly kneaded away all the hurt and all the memories that never let him relax. After Jack's hands moved to a new spot the oil remained and it warmed quickly. His back was feeling toasty and it was wonderful.

When Jack spoke next it startled the scientist and he jumped a bit as he felt hands pushing him back down. "Relax, you're bundled up like the Gordian Knot and I'd much rather massage it out than cut you in half."  
Nathan did his best to just let go and let his senses overwhelm him. The warmth of his body, the tingling from the oil and Jack's hands all over him. It was intimate in a way he wasn't sure he had ever been with someone before. And he had certainly never intended to get intimate with Sherrif Carter. They fought over Allision and over GD and he thought that was the extent of their relationship. He found Jack attractive, but then again so did most of the town or at least of the portion that was attracted to men. But knowing he's attractive and wanting to have his hands all over are not the same thing. But now that he has had Jack's hands all over him, he wasn't sure he wanted to give it up.

"Flip"

Nathan turned his head and blinked. Jack was standing next to the bed pouring more of the massage oil on his hands and reiterated his command. "Flip, Stark".

Nathan had a very painful erection right now and he wasn't sure he would live down Jack seeing it. It's one thing to be vulnerable, it's another to see that.

"I know you have a boner, all guys get them during massages like this. I won't take it personally".

With that Nathan had no more will to ignore him because he did really want those hands back on him making him feel better so he flipped over and his boxers were tented to a point of pain. There was just not enough fabric there to make him comfortable. Jack's eyes slid down his body as he continued to lather his hands in oil and he made a small appreciative noise.

"You always did have a great body Nathan".

Nathan's heart thumped at that. First, Jack never called him by his first name and second, while he knew he had a great body it was very different from showing it off to tell Jack that he had the ability to woo Allison, turns out he may have wooed Jack too.

Then Jack's hands were on him again focusing on his pecs and shoulders and arms and it was all too good. He let out another moan and closed his eyes as tight as he could so he wouldn't have to look at Carter. He was still oscillating between being insanely aroused and incredibly mortified. He took a deep breath and just tried to let it go. After this was over he'd ask Carter to never mention this to anyone under some sort of threat.

He felt Jack's hands on his face, which he hadn't been expecting and his eyes flashed open in surprise. "You've got so much tension in your jaw I'm afraid you'll chip a tooth."  
At that Nathan did his best to unclench his jaw and let Jack do his thing. He hadn't taken any time to actually appreciate the man. And there was plenty to appreciate. He was well built, and fit. He apparently knew well what to do with his hands and those blue eyes were dangerous. He realized he had been staring into Jack's eyes for at least a full minute and the sheriff was smiling over him. Nathan blushed realizing that he would never live this down when Jack bent down to put his mouth next to Nathan's ear.

"So one last question Nathan, do you want to be over, or are you interested in a happy ending?" The heat in his ear from Jack's breath and the words themselves sent lightning through Nathan. He had no idea how to respond except he found his head was already nodding as he watched Jack move down his body and slide his boxers off.

His erection felt so much better now that it wasn't trapped inside the too small fabric and without a moment's hesitation Jack was on top of it with his mouth, bobbing up and down as much as he could and stroking what he couldn't with his hand. The hand that was still coated with that tingling, warming, massage oil. All that feeling at once, after the intense massage was too much for him and he was spurting in no time at all. He had his fingers in Jack's hair and it felt so good. After he was done Jack used his tongue to clean his dick and then looked into Nathan's eyes. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that. Mr. Takes-his-shirt-off-all-the-time."

Nathan blushed because it was true, any chance he had where both Allison and Jack could see him and he had an excuse he would take his shirt off to posture, though he had no idea it had affected the other man like this. Jack crawled up the bed and laid down next to Nathan. "Like I said, most guys have that kind of reaction from a massage, so if you never want to discuss this again, forget it happened and move on I get it, but I've had the hots for you for a while and I was hopi-"  
Jack didn't get to finish that statement as Nathan had pulled him into a kiss. Jack's shock didn't last any time at all and soon they were making out with hands all over each other's bodies like teenagers. At some point Nathan had his hand around Jack's cock and a few strokes later release. They collapsed on the bed and Jack had a grin like a kid who was just told that their parents had purchased a candy store just for him while Nathan had just a small contented smile.

"We should shower before we fall asleep or this bed is going to be a sticky mess in the morning, that oil feels great but it's a horror on these sheets."

Jack dragged Nathan out of bed and into the shower with him. Ten minutes later they were squeaky clean though at their age they were still not ready for a round two. They dried off and then flopped back into bed with Jack running his fingers up and down Nathan's arm.

They were just about dozed off to sleep when S.A.R.A.H. alerted them to an incoming call from Henry. "Put him through!" Jack yelled back to his house.

"Jack! Do you know where Nathan is? We've been trying to get a hold of him for an hour but he's not answering his phone and he's not at home. Jo's getting ready to start sending out search parties. We've found the errant experiment that seems to be causing his language processing issues but we don't want to turn it off until we know Nathan is being watched in case something goes wrong."

Both Nathan and Jack flushed realizing that Nathan's phone was downstairs and they had put S.A.R.A.H. on privacy mode so unless there was a direct call they wouldn't hear it. "Um, yeah, he's here. I'm watching him right now. Do your thing."  
Henry gave a small hmmm into the phone. "Ok, well as long as you've got him taken care of" the mirth in Henry's voice was unmissable, "we're turning it off now, try to strike up a conversation in a few minutes and call us back with the results."

The call ended and Jack and Nathan looked at each other. Jack burst out laughing and Nathan put his head in his hands. What a hell of a day. A few minutes later the migraine of his life started. Jack picked him up, no easy feat considering Stark was several inches taller, and brought him downstairs where he told S.A.R.A.H. to get some medication while Jack dug out some spare clothes for Nathan. After some time the migraine passed and Jack and Nathan were seated on the couch in t-shirts and sweats.

Nathan turned to Jack opened his mouth and took a deep breath. "So, when is our next date, Jack?"


End file.
